A 78-year-old Norfolk woman has been convicted of drink-driving for a second time in five years.

Police had received a report that a Honda Jazz was being driven erratically, swerving on the road and hitting a kerb.

Officers stopped Josephine Loveridge in Norwich Road, Little Ryburgh, at around 2pm on April 6.

Prosecutor Lily Orr told King’s Lynn Magistrates’ Court on Thursday that Loveridge admitted to police that she had had a gin and tonic.

She was arrested after failing a roadside breath test and later blew 46 micrograms in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.

The defendant, of Cleaves Drive, Walsingham, pleaded guilty to drink-driving.

The court was told that she had been banned for a year in 2017 for a previous drink-drive matter and therefore was liable to receive a mandatory minimum three-year ban for a second offence within a ten-year period.

In mitigation, solicitor George Sorrell said his client had received a call from a friend nearby who had suffered a fall.

He added: “[The defendant] thought this was an emergency situation but unfortunately she had had that drink, which placed her not too much over [the limit].

“There wouldn’t be anything wrong with having a gin and tonic during the day but unfortunately she drove for whatever reason.”

Loveridge was banned from driving for three years but can reduce the period with completion of a drink-driver rehabilitation course.

She was also fined £250 and ordered to pay £50 costs and £34 victim surcharge.